Take Back the Prisons

Improving a small percentage of investigative staff, while commendable, won’t change the bias inherent in having the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision investigate itself.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposal giving the prison agency the power to terminate staff members convicted of crimes is tinkering at the edges. Staff members are rarely referred for prosecution and even less likely to be convicted.

Staff discipline shouldn’t remain in the hands of arbitrators. Rather, the department needs the power to dismiss and remove staff members from their posts whenever they have cause to believe that the employee has engaged in serious misconduct, and then to exercise that power.

The union contract is being renegotiated. It’s time for New York State to take back control of its prisons.

DORI LEWIS

CAROLINE HSU

New York

The writers are, respectively, supervising attorney and staff attorney for the Prisoners’ Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society.